Madoff's Curveball" by Jeffrey Toobin & other Wilpon stories

[nymr83]

bmfc1 wrote: With the elimination of the Gulf Coast Mets, the Mets have 8 minor league teams. They quickly remind us that most teams have 7 but that doesn't eliminate the fact that there are now 25 or so fewer minor leaguers in the organization which makes it that much tougher to find the next Wright or Reyes. Sell the team Fred. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/37292/mets-slash-gcl-team

While I certainly agree with the sentiment of "sell the team Fred", neither Wright nor Reyes was ever as lowly regarded as the 25 players who won't have jobs in the GCL as any true prospects will just end up in Brooklyn or Kingsport instead.
Even if the occassional above-average major leaguer is sometimes found among this group the move is a long, long, long way from making it "that much tougher to find" a star player.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

To me it's just the pathos of it all. At any other time maybe a consolidation of redundant stuff makes sense but given all that's gone on there's just no way for the Mets to do anything without it looking as though they're cutting every corner to get by, which they are.

[metirish]

Next thing you know Fred will want to cut the dental plan for the employees.

[batmagadanleadoff]

metirish wrote: Next thing you know Fred will want to cut the dental plan for the employees.

No, not the dental plan. But close.

According to Mike Silva's Baseball Digest, a number of sources are indicating that "the Mets are stepping up their attempts to move their only remaining moveable [large] contract, that of David Wright."

Can you say $70M payroll? I knew that you could.

[metirish]

Wait, Eric Young now gets back Wright and not Turner?, I kid, wouldn't be at all surprised with a payroll in that low range, I expect in actually.

[Edgy MD]

bmfc1 wrote: With the elimination of the Gulf Coast Mets, the Mets have 8 minor league teams. They quickly remind us that most teams have 7 but that doesn't eliminate the fact that there are now 25 or so fewer minor leaguers in the organization which makes it that much tougher to find the next Wright or Reyes. Sell the team Fred. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/37292/mets-slash-gcl-team

Rubin suggests that there won't be 25 fewer prospects, just 25 fewer playing rookie league ball. The same characters (again, so suggests Rubin) would be doing what many others spend their summers doing, playing intrasquad games at Port St. Lucie.

As for trading Wright, gerbils, that's a turn.

[metirish]

Analysis that's heavy on the speculating

ANALYSIS
For Mets, Vast Debt and Not a Lot of Time
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: December 24, 2011

The finances of major professional sports teams exist largely as the secrets of privately held companies, except for the community-owned Green Bay Packers, who report their profits without a hint of resistance. But elements of the Mets� finances have emerged publicly in the last year that show fans and potential investors how unprofitable the Mets are and also how deeply in debt the operation is. Sports teams do not always make money, and debt is a legitimate way to fuel their growth, as it is in real estate, where Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the Mets� owners, made their money and reputations. But the Mets worry Major League Baseball enough to be seen as a troubled franchise on a short tether. Their $430 million loan on the team is due in 2014. Their $25 million loan from M.L.B. is past due and repayment has been extended. They recently borrowed $40 million from Bank of America. Their valuable network, SNY, is also heavily leveraged, to the tune of $450 million, a loan that must be repaid in 2015. And the Mets� Citi Field bond payments leapt from $19 million last year to $43.7 million. That is a lot of borrowing for a team that lost $70 million last season and had faltering attendance. The team�s financial state is serious enough for Wilpon and Katz to be courting minority investors � a hunt for a cash crutch that is nearly a year in the making � to raise $200 million. All this is happening without the financial grease that once made the Mets� finances so much easier: profits from Wilpon and Katz�s decades of investing with Bernard L. Madoff. They lost $550 million when Madoff�s Ponzi scheme unraveled three years ago; they face a possible trial next year over claims by the trustee for his victims that they turned a blind eye to signs that Madoff was up to no good, which they deny. �It seems inconceivable they�re going to hold onto the team for the long term when you look at the incredible hurdles they face in 2014 and 2015,� said Howard Megdal, author of an e-book, �Wilpon�s Folly,� in which he details the financial pressures on the team. Mets officials declined to speak about the team�s debt or to discuss Megdal. They issued a statement that said, �We do not publicly address specific issues pertaining to our finances including inaccurate, speculative and ongoing fabrications.� Sports business experts say that the five-year term of the loans on the team and SNY is standard and that the team could refinance and extend them when they are due. But the Mets� actions � adding debt and seeking investors to buy 10 shares in the Mets for $20 million each � raises questions about whether they can generate enough cash to make all their payments, especially if the team does not rebound on the field. Robert Leib, a financial consultant to sports teams who has examined numerous balance sheets, said that debt was not necessarily a problem, even if it is to finance operating losses, as long as the value of the team is increasing. At least, then, banks and owners know that loans will be repaid through the sale of the team. But Leib, who has not seen the Mets� books, said, �If what you�re doing is taking down debt to handle operating losses with the knowledge that you�re inadequately capitalized from the get-go, then it�s toxic.� Baseball expects teams to use debt � Commissioner Bud Selig approves all loans � but sometimes, they pile up more than they can bear. M.L.B. also sets limits on borrowings, called the debt service rule, and nine teams were out of compliance with it this year, according to The Los Angeles Times. Chuck Greenberg, who led a group with Nolan Ryan to buy the Texas Rangers last year, said the debt rules were �fairly stringent,� but there were �creative ways to exploit� them by spinning off entities from the franchise, like ticket or real estate arms, �that are not subject to the debt limits on the team itself.� For the Mets, a team with a new ballpark, debt should be no more than 12 times its cash flow, according to a formula in the new labor agreement. But with the Mets� financial records private, there is no way to know for certain if they are breaking the debt rule. But teams can face breaking points. Too much debt pushed the Rangers into bankruptcy last year. Too little cash sent the debt-ridden Los Angeles Dodgers into bankruptcy last June. �If all three of your core assets � team, media and stadium � are encumbered with bank debt or bond obligations, it limits your agility and makes problem solving more of a challenge,� Greenberg said. Despite setting a ceiling on debt, M.L.B. can be selective in how it enforces the rule. Selig found it easy to push Tom Hicks to sell the Rangers because he had defaulted on $525 million in loans to the Rangers and the Dallas Stars. Selig engaged in a long-running battle with the Dodgers� owner, Frank McCourt, who had engaged in financial and personal conduct Selig judged to be detrimental to the team and to baseball, and cajoled him into agreeing to sell the important franchise. But he has indulged Wilpon, a friend and ally for 30 years. Unlike McCourt, Wilpon has tried to find minority partners to resolve his continuing cash crunch. So Selig has not installed a monitor to oversee the Mets as he did with McCourt. Selig has in the last few months witnessed the collapse of a deal to sell one-third of the Mets to the hedge-fund wizard David Einhorn, the failure of the Mets to repay baseball�s $25 million loan on time, and the slow pace of the sale of the 10 minority shares. Selig may never tell Wilpon he has to sell. But Selig could be waiting for banks to grow so concerned that they demand that Wilpon sell the team he has owned, outright since 2002, to recover all they are owed. �Bud would leave the dirty work to the banks,� said one banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity. �It would be easy for him to ask Fred�s bankers, �How�s that loan going?� � What seems hard to understand is where the Mets� owners will get the money to keep up with their debt payments, finance their losses and pay the Madoff trustee a substantial sum through a settlement or a jury verdict. Next season, with lower ticket prices and the prospect of attendance falling further, revenue may tumble again. And the availability of a free luxury suite to all 10 potential minority owners suggests the team cannot sell premium seating at perhaps $200,000 each. One source of financing � barring additional bank borrowing � is coming from within Sterling Equities, the parent company of the Mets. Recently, $40 million became available to buy two more of the minority shares. All of it went to offset losses, said two people familiar with the team�s finances. A version of this article appeared in print on December 25, 2011, on

[Edgy MD]

The news today is that bonds on CitiField have been downgraded by S&P. I'm openly quite ignorant on these matters, and am not sure what this means to the Wilpons, but I guess it could mean that their 4% shares are looking less attractive this morning, and also that it may be harder for them to leverage what they own of the ballpark to pump money into the team, if that's what they hope to do.

[Gwreck]

If you ever wanted proof the Wilpons are truly clueless, check this nugget out from that article (emphasis mine):

The team�s preliminary projection that ATTENDANCE WILL RISE to 2.5 million in 2012 from 2.29 million last season

[Guest themetfairy]

If you ever wanted proof the Wilpons are truly clueless, check this nugget out from that article (emphasis mine): The team�s preliminary projection that ATTENDANCE WILL RISE to 2.5 million in 2012 from 2.29 million last season

I want what they're smoking.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy DC wrote: The news today is that bonds on CitiField have been downgraded by S&P. I'm openly quite ignorant on these matters, and am not sure what this means to the Wilpons....

It means that the bonds will now cost less. And if you know anything about supply and demand, you'd know that more investors
will now want the bonds. Because they cost less. Not that this is any of your business. Don't you know that we're a private company?

[Edgy MD]

Ooooh, here's some action.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Brace yourselves

therealarieber Anthony Rieber Fred wilpon's extensive interview w/ me and WSJ today is not going to make mets fans happy. Sorry. Story soon.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here it is:

Mets' Wilpon: 'I Think We'll Be Fine' By BRIAN COSTA PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz.�Back in New York, he faces heavy debt, staggering losses and a potentially crippling lawsuit. But here, at a lavish mountainside resort, Fred Wilpon was at peace. The embattled Mets owner smiled broadly Thursday as he shook hands with other executives on his way out of Major League Baseball's quarterly owners meetings. And in his first extended public comments since last spring, it was evident just how much he values his place in this exclusive club�and how determined he is to keep it. Wilpon said he understood why many fans hope he'll sell the team, but he remained adamant about his desire to maintain majority control. And he expressed confidence in his ability to do so. A self-made real estate magnate from Brooklyn, Wilpon owns the Mets along with his brother-in-law, Saul Katz, the team president; and his son Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer. "How could anybody deny that it's been a challenging time?" Wilpon said. "But I came from nothing. I meet the challenges. So does Saul and Jeff and our whole family. We're meeting the challenges and I think we'll be fine." It has been a dismal year for the Mets, who had their third consecutive losing season in 2011, lost roughly $70 million and recently lost their best player, Jose Reyes, to the Miami Marlins via free agency. But Wilpon may yet have reasons for optimism these days. For one thing, the Mets expect to complete the sale of at least five minority stakes in the team within the next month, according to a person familiar with the matter. That will provide an infusion of at least $100 million, more than half of which will be used to pay off a $25 million debt to MLB and a $40 million bridge loan to Bank of America. The Mets still hope to sell an additional five to seven stakes after that, the person said, with the goal of raising roughly $200 million. Also, MLB commissioner Bud Selig, a staunch ally and longtime friend of Wilpon, agreed Thursday to remain in office for another two years. So the game's highest powers are unlikely to pressure Wilpon to sell. Selig said he was encouraged by the progress the Mets have made in the sale of minority stakes�none of which are complete yet�and reiterated his support for Wilpon. "He's been a great owner," Selig said. "Loves his team. He's everything you'd want in a local owner. He's had some economic problems, not caused by himself, and I have a lot of faith in him that he's working his way through them." Wilpon, 75, declined to discuss the sales process in detail. Nor would he discuss the lawsuit filed against him and Katz by the trustee representing victims of the Bernard Madoff fraud. The case, in which Wilpon and Katz could be liable for up to $386 million, is set to go to trial in March. But Wilpon spoke at length about Reyes, who signed with Miami last month for six years and $106 million. "Reyes was 17 years old when I met him," Wilpon said. "He spoke pretty good English at that time, too. He said to me, 'Can you give me some advice?' I said, 'Yeah, never wipe that smile off your face.'" When asked if Reyes's departure was difficult for him, Wilpon said, "Certainly. � I'm a fan. I understand it, but I'm still pained about it." Of course, Wilpon isn't just a fan. He could have doled out the money to retain Reyes. And in another time, he might have. But with the Mets in the midst of a payroll purge and questions about Reyes's durability, Wilpon was in no position to do so. The payroll is set to drop from $143 million on Opening Day 2011 to less than $100 million this year. "I think we have to get the fans back at the stadium," Wilpon said. "That's a necessity. That's the lifeblood. And to do that, we have to have a good team. We have to be careful that we don't make some of the mistakes that we made in the past, having long-term contracts that didn't work out." The Mets averaged 30,161 fans at Citi Field in 2011, according to Stats LLC, nearly a 7% drop from 2010 and down 22.5% from 2009. Given how low the expectations are for the team this year, it will be difficult to reverse that trend soon. But Wilpon remained optimistic. "I think we're going to be better than you think," he said. "We would hope that Mets fans enjoy going to the ballpark and give this team a try." Even if things break right for the Mets, though�they settle the lawsuit, bring in $200 million from investors and pay off loans to MLB and Bank of America�there's still $375 million debt due in 2014 looming, according to a person familiar with the team's finances. "This is a tough time," Wilpon said. "We're bearing up, I can promise you that."

[metirish]

Just read it, bleh, not going anywhere, no surprise.


I guess Rieber has his own article but I can't imagine it's much different.

[ashie62]

375 Million possibly due in 2014? Rough.

[G-Fafif]

And Jon Huntsman says finishing third in New Hampshire after campaigning there for a year is a ticket to ride.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

"Reyes was 17 years old when I met him," Wilpon said. "He spoke pretty good English at that time, too. He said to me, 'Can you give me some advice?' I said, 'Yeah, never wipe that smile off your face.'"

I'd like some confirmation of this.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I didn't realize Wilpon was 75. Makes sense considering they've had the team for 30 years.

[Edgy MD]

Nothing to brace for, anyhow.

[Fman99]

Fred Wilpon continues to wipe his arse with $10 bills while his payroll and attendance shrink to "cock and balls in an Arctic tidepool" sized proportions.

Who are the suckers paying $20 million for a Mr. Met reacharound, anyway?

[ashie62]

Fman99 wrote: Fred Wilpon continues to wipe his arse with $10 bills while his payroll and attendance shrink to "cock and balls in an Arctic tidepool" sized proportions. Who are the suckers paying $20 million for a Mr. Met reacharound, anyway?

None yet...maybe they read the prospectus.

[Edgy MD]

We'll see. Alll reports say they'll be announcing the sale of five forthwith.

I think we hardly expected Wilpon to skip the owners' meetings as some sort of austerity measure.

[metirish]

Edgy DC wrote: We'll see. Alll reports say they'll be announcing the sale of five forthwith. I think we hardly expected Wilpon to skip the owners' meetings as some sort of austerity measure.

no, but did he dump his private jet?, not likely.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Judge Rakoff denies immediate right of appeal. Trial likely this Spring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/sports/baseball/judge-rejects-bid-by-madoff-trustee-to-appeal-ruling.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP396d130c85f042399f6677deb46626ee.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/18/us-madoff-mets-idUSTRE80H04120120118

What goes unmentioned in all of these news recaps is that Picard can still appeal Judge Rakoff's rulings; those rulings limited the time frame under which Sterling's behavior might constitute culpable conduct, thus capping damages at about $386M instead of close to $1B. Picard will simply have to wait until the trial is over before appealing.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Mets retain John Maine as expert witness in upcoming Picard trial. No, not that John Maine.

Expert Witnesses Faulted in Suit Against Mets� Owners By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: January 27, 2012 Lawyers for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff have accused the Mets� owners of enriching themselves with illegitimate profits from his Ponzi scheme. The owners, in turn, have called the lawyers shakedown artists bent on ruining their good reputations to extort money. It has, then, been a mean year all around since the Madoff trustee sued Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the Mets� owners, for $1 billion. Now, the two sides are less than two months from going to trial. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. So perhaps it�s no surprise that new court filings show that neither side thinks much of the expert witnesses recruited by the other side. The trustee�s lineup includes Harrison J. Goldin, a former New York City comptroller who faced ethical questions while in office. The Mets� owners hired John Maine. No, not that John Maine, the sore-shouldered Mets right-hander whom the pitching coach Dan Warthen labeled a �habitual liar� during his last, injury-marred season with the team, in 2010. This John Maine graduated from Dartmouth with a history degree and worked as both a stockbroker and Smith Barney executive, but has not been directly involved in the financial sector since 1990. He now makes his living testifying at trials. As part of the new court filings, this Maine submitted a report supporting one of Wilpon and Katz�s bedrock defenses � that despite their real estate holdings, they are not sophisticated investors and had no reason to doubt, or investigate, Madoff while he was their trusted broker. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, in turn attacked Maine much the way National League teams pounded John Maine the pitcher during that last Mets season, when he was not forthcoming about his injuries, thus angering Warthen. Picard said John Maine the expert witness had issued a report that lacked �any principle or methodology� and cited no �surveys, sources, books, treatises, industry guides, periodicals, studies or any other objective third-party analysis.� He said Maine had been too long removed from a full-time financial post, and he even cited Maine�s failed attempt at running a trout farm. Goldin was treated far more nicely by the Mets� lawyers. Goldin wrote a report for Picard that stated that Wilpon and Katz did not carry out due diligence before offering employees at their holding company, Sterling Equities, an option to invest their retirement money with Madoff. Another Picard expert, Steve Pomerantz, who holds a doctorate in mathematics, cited 26 red flags that he said should have alerted Wilpon and Katz that something was, well, fishy during their many years of investing with Madoff. The Mets� lawyers called their conclusions �irrelevant and unfounded.� But Goldin�s and Pomerantz�s credentials � and any fishing sidelights � were not questioned. The Mets had no comment on the case Friday or the factors that went into hiring Maine. Actually, United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff has more substantial motions before him than whether he will eliminate any expert witness before the jury trial of the Mets� owners starts on March 19. It is a serious case that turns on whether Wilpon and Katz willfully turned a blind eye from indications that Madoff was up to no good. Rakoff has already dismissed most of the trustee�s claims against the Mets� owners and has ruled that Picard cannot recover more than $386 million from Wilpon and Katz. In their motion for a summary judgment on Thursday, Wilpon and Katz asked Rakoff to dismiss the last three claims against them and asserted that the evidence gathered by Picard since last fall proved that they were unaware that Madoff was engaged in a fraud. They said that the trustee �has an unlimited budget and has spent millions of dollars trying to find support for his baseless allegations.� Nevertheless, they said, Picard �has no evidence that any defendant was suspicious of Madoff.� Picard�s narrowly focused motion that was filed on Friday asks for a summary judgment on a claim that would let his office recover $83 million in fictitious profits the Mets� owners received through their Madoff accounts. In his ruling last September, Rakoff said that the trustee �might well prevail� on such a motion. Maine did not return a call seeking comment. He retired as an executive vice president of Smith Barney in 1990 and, apparently looking for something different to do, tried to raise trout in Idaho. In a deposition taken this month, David Sheehan, Picard�s chief counsel, asked Maine about his credentials and knowledge. Maine talked about his experience, along with his failure as a trout entrepreneur. �And my trout herd swam away one morning,� he said. �I hate when that happens,� Sheehan said, in apparent deadpan. �It ruins the whole night,� Maine said. Picard contends that Maine�s work as a stockbroker and office executive in the 1970s and �80s, and his �brief stint trying to raise trout,� were �outside the scope of the issues to be tried to the jury in this litigation.� In any case, Maine has built a business as an expert witness, mediator and arbitrator in the securities industry. His r�sum� says he has been retained 1,600 times and testified 600 times. In 2004, he testified for Peter Bacanovic, Martha Stewart�s former stockbroker, when they were tried for conspiracy to hinder a federal investigation into her sale of shares in a stock. Asked by Sheehan in the deposition about the Stewart trial, Maine said: �I was a very minor witness. My mother was so disappointed that my picture was never taken.� As for John Maine the pitcher, he spent 2011 with the Colorado Rockies� Class AAA team and has now signed a minor league contact with the Boston Red Sox. He once played Santa Claus at a Mets Christmas party, back when everything was considerably more cheerful in Flushing.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I've generally loved Sandomir's work of late.

But did he really just pad out this article with 2-3 paragraphs of this-guy-with-the-same-name stuff? He might as well have made the title really big, and increased the page margins.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Sandomir Good STOP Each sentence = paragraph STOP So 2 Maine sentences, only STOP

[metirish]

If Frank McCourt's L.A. Dodgers go for $2 billion, Fred Wilpon's NY Mets could be worth more
Franchise values in baseball are about to take a quantum leap

Ever so gradually, Frank McCourt has gone from the most villified owner in baseball to everyone�s guardian angel; from Bud Selig�s worst nightmare to the commissioner�s fondest dream. Such is the stunning fallout from McCourt plunging the Los Angeles Dodgers into bankruptcy court and the subsequent forced auction in which seven or eight of the richest men in America are all bidding against each other for the right to own one of baseball�s signature franchises. The first elimination round was completed last week with those advancing all committed to paying a minimum of $1.5 billion for the team. When you consider the previous highest price a baseball team fetched was the $845 million from Tom Ricketts for the Chicago Cubs in 2009, this is staggering, especially when you also consider the substantial wealth of all the remaining bidders will surely drive the ultimate sale price to $2 billion. Suddenly, from the unlikeliest of sources, franchise values in baseball are about to take a quantum leap that, as recently as six months ago, nobody in the game could have foreseen. �It�s mind-boggling,� said one industry insider. �If the Dodgers are worth two billion, what are the Yankees worth? Between their brand alone, plus their network, stadium and all their other built-in revenue, you�d have to say almost twice as much.� To which I countered: Never mind the Yankees. What about the Mets? �The Mets,� the insider said, �are probably the biggest beneficiaries of all in this Dodger sale.� Who�d have thought it? Certainly not Fred Wilpon. But Frank McCourt is about to be his salvation. For if the Dodgers wind up selling for $2 billion or more, the value of the Mets, a signature franchise in their own right, in the country�s largest media market with their own network and new stadium, despite their present hard times, have to be worth close to $3 billion. �What that means,� said the insider, �is that the Wilpons can now go back to their banks, point to the value of the team, and say: �Lend us more money.�� Yes, thanks to Frank McCourt�s multi-million dollar divorce, which set in motion this ironic sequence of events, Wilpon is about to have more collateral than he ever dreamed of. One person who obviously understands what the record-shattering Dodger sale will mean for the Mets � if only because he�s been one of the driving forces in it � is Steve Cohen, the Connecticut-based billionaire founder of SAC Capital Advisors investment firm. It was revealed last week that Cohen was in place to be one of the limited investors in the Mets, spending $20 million for one of 10 shares being offered for sale by the cash-strapped Wilpons in order to enable them to pay down some $65 million in loans. In doing so, you could say Cohen is hedging his bets. In either case, it�s a win-win for him. If he gets the Dodgers, it�s obviously a huge win, but if he doesn�t, his $20 million investment in the Mets figures to be worth a whole lot more with the re-evaluation of the team�s value in the wake of the final Dodger price tag. But what makes this all even more remarkable is the dramatic change of fortunes with the Dodgers from when McCourt first bought them from Fox/News Corp in 2004. At the time, McCourt had most recently been a disappointed suitor for the Red Sox, who, with some deft behind-the-scenes manipulation on Selig�s part, were sold for a then-record $660 million to Florida Marlins owner John Henry in March of 2002. When Fox put the Dodgers up for sale two years later, nobody was interested in them. Philanthropist Eli Broad, acknowledged as the wealthiest man in Los Angeles at the time, showed a token interest in buying the team, but in the end, Selig guided the sale of the team to McCourt for $430 million, about $80 million more than the record price News Corp had paid Peter O�Malley for the team in 1998. Now, 14 years later, O�Malley is back, aligned with one of the remaining bidding groups, trying to buy the Dodgers back for nearly three times more than what he sold them for. So what happened? �What has occurred is a dramatic change of circumstances in that, back in 2004, baseball was still viewed as labor idiots, the Dodgers were locked in a vastly undervalued TV contract, and the economic changes from the 2002 labor agreement hadn�t fully kicked in,� said another industry insider. �You can�t underestimate the value of an expiring TV deal in that market, with both Fox and Time Warner competing against each other. Now, under Selig, baseball has had years of labor peace and franchise values have continued to increase considerably.� Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/frank-mccourt-a-dodgers-2-billion-fred-wilpon-ny-mets-worth-article-1.1017187#ixzz1lbxOcBek Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/frank-mccourt-a-dodgers-2-billion-fred-wilpon-ny-mets-worth-article-1.1017187#ixzz1lbxJXfgM

[metirish]

Having a hard time believing that the Mets are worth anywhere near $2 billion...